I have a 2003 Dodge Ram 4x4 with the first year Hemi engine and automatic transmission. I am the second owner for the last 10 years and at this point it has only 85,000 miles on the vehicle.

I have noticed i am getting lower and lower fuel mileage out a gallon of 91 octane (as required for this year engine) gas now it's right around 7 MPG and that's about it. I was at about 8.5 a year ago. I don't know if that's because i only use the truck for short in town trips and not much freeway driving or if there is some other issue? The truck is not loaded with anything other but a camper shell for extra weight. It does have the 3:91 rear end gears with stock 20 inch wheels.

Just wanted to see what others get with their similar trucks to compare.

Thanks
Stu

Stu, that sure isn't right . . . I would suspect you have an issue going on, even though you don't have the "Check Engine Light" illuminated . . . I have 2013 Ram 1500 4x4, 5.7hemi, crew cab, and have gotten 15-18mpg around town, and up to 23mpg on the highway (those would be USA Gallon figures, not Imperial) . . .

Yea, that's why i wanted to see what others are getting for fuel usage. I have no check engine light on and have had the codes checked and nothing is showing any problems? Even from day one 10 years ago it never got better then say 9 MPG around town.

Stu

All city driving, my 2005 would get 10-11 mpg. If you idle a bunch it's going to be worse as well.

So not that far off from me. One other thing is there a lot of hills around here so that play into the low fuel millage too maybe?

My 2010 hemi quad cab does about exactly the same, I’m happy with it. I think it’s reasonable for a 390 horsepower truck. I have a sprint booster on mine to get rid of the throttle delay, and real dual exhaust with two mufflers is all I’ve done to it.

those 10 and 13 trucks get much better than the earlier ones, 13-15 in town is normal and 17-19 on highway with the earlier ones, the later ones with VVT MDS get another 2-3 MPG.

The hills will certainly also degrade your fuel economy, not surprised it's a little worse than my truck was.

New they were only rated at 12 mpg city, and that's assuming ethanol free fuel and no hills either.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=21160

I had an 04 QC Hemi 4 wd since new and it would give me 12/14 mpg in town and up to 19 mpg on the freeway. Had it for 10 years and the mpg stayed almost the same over that time. Now have a 2500 Diesel.

Damn, 7mpg is horrid. That's what I got with my V10 Ford Tioga 31ft motorhome towing a 4000 lb Jeep Liberty up and down the mountains here in Nevada.

I would think your 3:91's would help mileage in town and on hills since you need less pedal pressure to move the truck. I hated the 3:55s in my '09 1500 Hemi as it was a relative dog from a dead stop.

My 04 hemi quad cab short bed gets 13mpg... in comparison, driving to the same places, same way etc, my cummins gets 18. Where I live it's lots of hills and I rarely drive on the highway.

You should be getting double that mileage and you mention you've noticed it getting worse. I would do some investigating like making sure a brake isn't hanging up or do a plug reading to see if it's overly rich for some reason. Either could be a reason for no CLE.

What kind of tires are you running? I take a big hit mpg wise with my 05 QCSB 4wd Hemi when I put on my Duratracs for the winter (vs Wrangler RSA's for the summer). But yeah, 7 mpg is bad, I do better than that here in the dead of winter (-10 F here today) with my Duratracs on. Whens the last time you changed the plugs?

Check to see if the NTK made Oxygen sensors have been replaced with Bosch made ones. Bosch O2 sensors are 1 MPG or so worse.

Check the odometer and speedometer by driving 60 mph on an interstate with mile posts. Exactly 60 seconds per mile.

What brand, size and psi in the tires?
High rolling resistence tires can reduce MPG by as much as 3.

On the highway 3.91 diff gears on an unloaded Ram pickup decrease MPG by 2 at a steady 60 mph compared to 3.21.

Camper tops generally increase air drag but it varies a lot by topper shape.

You can zero in on whether the tires and/or camper top is hurting MPG by coasting down a steep but steady grade hill in neutral.

They are 275 x 60 x 20 Goodyear Wranglers. I will double check the tire pressure later but they dont seem to be low.


I did see going back though the original owner's stack of paperwork the truck was having problems right before i brought it with check engine light issues. The shop the owner took it too did change the plugs at about 80,000 miles. That seemed to fix the problem. You can see in 10 years i have not put on many miles at all.

I'm getting just over 10 mpg with mt V6 Dakota. We have the winter blend of gas right now, it always causes a drop in mileage.

Or, maybe, since the price of gas is dropping, they are leaving something out (or lowering the quality) of the gas so they are still making money on the cheap gas...... "Oh, we have to make this stuff cheaper, how can we lower the quality so it will burn faster and they will have to buy more of this crap?"

No conspiracy thinking here... Gene

Just checked all the air pressure and raised it from 35 PSI to 45 PSI so may that will help. The bummer thing i just noticed is the tires only have about 1000 miles on them since i put them on about 4 years ago but already they are cracked all around the rim area!

Stu

Man Stu, it looks like you really do drive quite locally. I hope the thing gets up to temperature for closed loop and all that, or it will remain a pig. Them San fran hills do not help. I live in Chi suburbs, and my 4.7 durango is at 16 for long term average mpg.

Once i can get on the freeway and stay at a steady flat pace i can get near 18 MPG at 65MPH.

Are you manually checking the mileage, miles divided by gallons or going off the display? Sometimes the display can be off +/-, manually checking it can confirm its accuracy. I can't remember if my '03 would display both instant or average MPG but my 99 CTD is average only so if I see a depressing number, the reset button makes it go away. lol

O2 sensor could be getting tired but not be out of range enough to trip a CEL.

Also no MDS on an '03 so it's all 8 all the time. No MDS on trucks until '06.

1000 miles in 4 years could just be stale gas. lol.

Kevin